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Today's Opinions

Where do we even start?
For people in Northern California right now who’ve been sifting through the ashes of their lives that’s what they’ve got to be asking: Where do we start? How do we begin to rebuild? When will we ever again feel normal? And our question here in the high country of Colorado is will we ever have to ask something similar ourselves?

Misleading election information, again
Editor:
This past week, I received promotional material about the upcoming school board elections and why I should vote for the three incumbents. I found the brochure full of misleading information. First, the current board claims they are “making sure our graduates are ready for college.” Last year, graduation rates in Jeffco dropped vs. prior year. Per the 2016 ACT scores, seven out of 10 11th-graders failed to meet college and career benchmarks.

Isn’t it odd how sometimes several ideas come into our heads that support each other. I don’t know how that happens, but my pastor may have a theory. It occurred to me that when this happens, perhaps I should write down the ideas and share them.
Last week at Rotary, we were reminded how a businessman, Herbert J. Taylor, transformed a failing business into a successful one by implementing four principles and making them the guiding values of the business. They are now called the Rotary Four-Way Test: Of all the things we think, say and do

We lost a giant of Colorado politics earlier this month with the passing of Wally Stealey. I was privileged to know and work with (and against) him for the better part of 30 years. He graciously was a mentor to me and then even more graciously allowed our relationship to transition into that of friends and colleagues as I got older and more experienced.

Could we be the next California?
Editor:
Could we be next? Another California? They cloud-seed, too.
I have written for years about the cloud-seeding program. My well is basically dry. A new well a 1,000 feet away from my property was drilled this summer; they went down a 1,000 feet and got a gallon a minute. The farmers and ranchers east of the Continental Divide no longer have snow cover in the winter to protect their crops.

Just because we’ve dodged some bullets over the years here in Evergreen, we’re not immune to fires. Fires like we’ve just seen in Northern California. Fires that flatten everything in their path. And kill people in the process. This year, they were out west. Next year, they could be in our own backyards.

If you’ve read my articles you know I’m not a big fan of the president. My objections are much more about character issues than policy. I just don’t believe he has a high level of integrity. However, recently he began to move in a new direction. I’m determined to keep an open mind and, like an umpire, call them as I see them.